On Thursday, US Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said that he has ordered a forensic examination of the computer equipment used by the Senate Intelligence Committee in investigating the Central Intelligence Agency's detention and interrogation programs. Reid reasoned that the probe would seek to vindicate the Committee from wha he called the CIA's absurd claims. The New York Times said that the CIA said the Committee's staff allegedly hacked into the network of the agency over the course of the Senate's investigation.
Reid said in a letter to CIA chief John Brennan, "The C.I.A. has produced no evidence to support its claims that Senate committee staff who have no technical training somehow hacked into the C.I.A.'s highly secure classified networks, an allegation that appears on its face to be patently absurd."
Reid's move is the latest of the brewing bitter fight between the Committee who has oversight authority and the CIA. The chairwoman of the committee, Senator Dianne Feinstein, accused the agency last week of monitoring their computers and improperly removed pertinent documents on two occasions in 2010.
Brennan has since denied the allegations of Feinstein. Nonetheless, the CIA appeared to have countered the Committee's move after the agency's lawyers referred a case to the US Justice Department, claiming that aides of the Intelligence Committee was able to gain unauthorized access to its computer systems to retrieve the "Panetta Report," a classified interrogation program.
The Times said the Justice Department is currently torn on investigating the allegations made by both parties against each other, as there are constitutional questions about separation of powers that has been raised by the CIA-committee conflict.
Even Reid acknowledges the Justice Department's dilemma, the Times noted. He wrote, "You are no doubt aware of the grave and unprecedented concerns with regard to constitutional separation of powers this action raises. (To) ensure its independence, I ask that you take whatever steps necessary to ensure that C.I.A. personnel refrain from further interaction related to this issue with Senate staff other than the sergeant-at-arms."
